Instinct

Chapter 6 -- Thrree

We walked through the corridor in silence. The injections ceremony was most likely taking place right now. How far along they were into the process was beyond me. And more than that, I was curious as to how the actual ceremony was going. If there were any complications with the serum, any side effects that derived from it, any immediate after effects of the injection. It was all unknown at the time being to me. Though surely I'd find out soon enough after I took care of my situation at hand...

I was following a group of people ahead of me to a secluded execution room, where I was to carry out something I still subconsciously battled with whether my choice was right or not. And everytime I tried to shake the thought away, Fivve would appear in my head, showing me pictures of her being happy with that beautiful smile of hers. From how I remembered her best. That damned smile made my heart melt every time without fail. Even thinking of it now made me feel warmer on the inside. I soon had the creeping realization that that smile would fade away when she would learn of her father's death. She'd never smile again, wanting to get down to the bottom of why her father was killed all of a suddenly.

And I realized the inevitability of her bitter hatred if she were to figure out it was me pulling the trigger. She was a smart girl, knowing I was gone and being the Zyto I am... Fivve would have no problem putting the two together.

If there's one thing to come from this: it's that even when I do kill Shawn... I can't ever let her know it was me.

I shook the thought away again and tried focusing on the people in front of me.

The fate that awaited me.

In front of the group was Zoe, leading us to where the room was. She wore a black, knee-high dress with a sleek white stripe along both sides of it. Her flats scuffed and clicked against the polished floor, echoing and bouncing around the emptiness of the corridor. The entire time we walked she hadn't looked back to me or the rest of the group following her.

Zoe never once looked at Shawn during our walk. Neither he did to her.

She seemed off about the whole situation from what I could pick up on her actions. I didn't know Zoe well or personally but I could tell instantly that this wasn't her normal behavior. Her walk, however, breathed untouchability. Which contrasted to her overall mood of distance, the solidarity she put out as though she was separated from her own body. Following behind her were two high-level Xultant guards with a person's limp arm in one of their hands. They wore standard militarized suits with handguns holstered at their hips.

The person they were holding was Shawn Toxi, Fivve's father, the man I was supposed to kill in just a short amount of time. They weren't so much holding him while he was walking as they were more dragging him along unwillingly. His body submitted to their pull and slumped inward with defeat.

Shawn wasn't in the best condition; with his face laced with bruises and cuts, and his back stretched out with large gashes. The possible culprit being the barbed whips that may've been the curator of them. They were exposed as his shirt was ripped in the back and barely hanging on by their threads, revealing the freshness of them. His pants were torn randomly and his feet were bare. Whatever they did to him seemed unnecessary and disgustingly cruel, and I couldn't understand what may've warranted such a result as this. Nor did I think he would be the subject of torture by these people. The Zyto's were cruel, I'd admit, but this was something a step above of what I'd normally see. And I almost wanted to vomit at the sight.

There was something corrupt within Zykard and the council, whatever it was, I never had seen any visual proof until now...

And then there was me, in the back of all of them with a handgun in my right hand that I was given earlier to carry out the job. The grip of it singed with a guilty feeling that I could feel seer into my palm. I tried ignoring the overwhelming knotting in my stomach that I felt.